K-Ci & JoJo are an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey and Joel “JoJo” Hailey. Natives of Wingate, North Carolina, they were also members of the chart-topping R&B group Jodeci with the DeGrate brothers—Donald (better known as DeVante Swing) and Dalvin.
K-Ci and JoJo’s first sign of independence came in 1994 when K-Ci covered Bobby Womack’s hit “If You Think You’re Lonely Now” for the movie Jason’s Lyric. Early in 1996, K-Ci and JoJo teamed up for the song “How Could You” for the movie Bulletproof starring Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler. By July 1996, K-Ci and JoJo finally had a hit on their hands as guest artists in 2Pac’s number-one R&B hit “How Do U Want It”. It also topped the Billboard Hot 100. The brothers made their side projects into a full album, Love Always. Released on June 17, 1997, the album spawned two top-ten R&B hits: “You Bring Me Up” and “Last Night’s Letter.”
The minor success of those singles, however, paled in comparison to the success of the album’s third single, “All My Life” (which was dedicated to JoJo’s daughter). A supple, lush ballad far removed from the Jodeci material of the early 1990s, “All My Life” was the number-one song on the Hot 100 for three weeks, a feat that K-Ci and JoJo had never achieved with Jodeci. It features a piano melody very similar to that of the electric piano found backing “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. Future singles and albums would be crafted in the vein of “All My Life”, which was the duo’s only number-one hit. Love Always went on to sell four million copies, and the success of the album put Jodeci’s reunion on hold indefinitely.
Their second album. It’s Real. was released on June 22, 1999. It spawned one major hit “Tell Me It’s Real” which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard’s R&B charts. The “Club Asylum Steppers” remix of Tell Me It’s Real has proven extremely popular within the UK Garage scene.
K-Ci and JoJo returned with X on December 5, 2000. X, the Roman numeral for ten, was picked as the album title to celebrate the Haileys’ tenth anniversary in the music business. They made a strong return to the Billboard Hot 100 early in 2001 with the song “Crazy”, also included on the Save the Last Dance soundtrack. “Crazy” peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
The fourth K-Ci and JoJo album, Emotional, was released on November 26, 2002, but did not find commercial success. K-Ci and JoJo released a greatest hits album on February 8, 2005. In late 2006 K-Ci released his debut solo album entitled My Book. In 2008, they released their fifth album called Love which was released in Japan only on February 6.
